Jordan Peele’s ‘Us’ Was Inspired By A ‘Twilight Zone’ Episode
Jordan Peele is in charge of the upcomingTwilight Zonereboot for CBS All Access, but hisZoneconnections don’t end there. The filmmaker has revealed that his impending horror filmUsis also inspired by aTwilight Zoneepisode called “Mirror Image”. At this point, I think it’s safe to assume Jordan Peele is aTwilight Zonefan. Just a hunch.
The trailer forUs, the latest tale of terror from Jordan Peele in which a family encounters what appears to be their doppelgängers, throws off some seriousTwilight Zonevibes. And that’s apparently intentional, because according to Peele himself, the film is inspired by a classicZoneepisode. Speaking withRolling Stone, Peele dropped some info on the provenience of his highly anticipated new film:
Its initial inspiration, appropriately enough, was the oldTwilight Zoneepisode “Mirror Image,” which he saw as a kid. In it, a woman encounters her duplicate in a bus station and becomes convinced it arrived from a parallel universe, bent on replacing her. “It’s terrifying, beautiful, really elegant storytelling,” Peele says, “and it opens up a world. It opens up your imagination.” He spent six months breaking down his script in his head and another six writing – a substantially shorter gestation period thanGet Out.
“Mirror Image” was an episode from season 1 ofThe Twilight Zone, written byTwilight Zonecreator Rod Serling himself, and starring Vera Miles. It’s a fairly creepy episode in which a woman waiting at a bus depot becomes convinced her exact double is lurking around, trying to take her place. Serling got the idea for the episode from a real-life event, in which he spotted a man at an airport wearing the same clothes and carrying the same exact type of luggage. Spooky!
Mirror Image
The Twilight Zoneis one of the best television shows in history, and I love that Peele draws so much inspiration from it. I’m dying to see what he does with the show itself when his reboot arrives later this year. As forUs, the film is one of ourmost anticipated movies of 2019, and will have its premiere at SXSW in March before opening everywhere June 19, 2025.
Accompanied by her husband, son and daughter, Adelaide Wilson returns to the beachfront home where she grew up as a child. Haunted by a traumatic experience from the past, Adelaide grows increasingly concerned that something bad is going to happen to her family. Her worst fears soon become a realitywhen four masked strangers descend upon the house, forcing the Wilsons into a fight for survival. When the masks come off, each stranger takes the appearance of a different family member.
